The brief two-game losing streak came to an end as the Pratt Community College women’s basketball team turned aside Neosho County 71-47 at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. After beginning the season 9-0, PCC hit a speed bump, dropping games to Butler and Independence right before Thanksgiving. The turkey must have agreed with the Lady Beavers, as they got back on the winning track Monday night— dropping the Lady Panthers for the second time in as many weeks. The margin of victory was even larger for the Beavers this time on their home floor than it was 2 weeks ago at the Neosho Classic when Pratt won 86-70. The game was pretty easy to analyze— the Lady Beavers were simply better than the Lady Panthers. With better athletes and a higher basketball IQ, PCC basically just did what should be expected— defeated a team that isn’t as good as they are. Perhaps the most telling statistic was Neosho only connecting on 26% of their shots from the field, and 20% from 3-pt. land. “Part of that was us playing good defense on them, and part of that was just them missing some easy shots,” PCC coach Stephanie Thompson explained. By way of contrast, PCC shot 50% from the field. Aneshia Brooks hit the only 3-pointer for Pratt, but they didn’t need to shoot many 3s. They were getting good, close-in shots off their offense and in transition. Tatiana Grant had 4 steals and Karissa Pena had 3 as, often-times, the PCC offense was started by their defense. “One thing I thought we didn’t do as well as I would have liked was defensive rebounding,” Thompson observed. “We outrebounded them, but not by the margin I thought we should have. We let them have too many second chances. It was just lucky for us they missed them.” PCC had 43 boards to 40 for Neosho on the evening, with 16 of those being offensive. Tatiana Grant led the Beavers in rebounding with 14. Sherry Calhoun added 6 boards. The Lady Beavers sported a balanced attack, with Tatiana Grant (21), Kari Devlin (12) and Elle Stein (12) all in double figures. PCC had five other players with at least 4 points apiece. The Lady Beavers continue to play unselfish basketball, racking up 24 assists on the evening. Maddie Pendry and Lanina Spence each had 4 assists to pace the PCC in that category. Neosho played full-court pressure at times, but the Lady Beavers only turned it over 13 times on the night, compared to 18 turnovers for the Panthers. “It was a nice team win,” Coach Thompson concluded. “No one really had an outstanding game, but we had a lot of players with good games.” At 10-2, the Lady Beavers travel to Hesston on Wednesday for a rematch with the Larks. Pratt won by 20 when the teams met earlier.